The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report saying that it found that the "Notices sent to denied [Social Security disability] claimants may provide inconsistent and sometimes misleading information about the evidence obtained."
This has been a problem as long as I have been involved in this field of work, which is now about 30 years. There have been many reports and Congressional hearings over the years on this issue and promises from every Social Security Commissioner, including the current one.
When clients ask me about details of these decisions, I always tell them not to bother because there are so many mistakes that a close reading of the denials is pointless. Some of what is in these decisions is, in effect, in code anyway. How would a claimant know that the use of the word "severe" is, in effect, an insult since it means that Social Security has just determined that there is essentially nothing wrong with the claimant -- that there is nothing to anything the claimant has alleged?
This has been a problem as long as I have been involved in this field of work, which is now about 30 years. There have been many reports and Congressional hearings over the years on this issue and promises from every Social Security Commissioner, including the current one.
When clients ask me about details of these decisions, I always tell them not to bother because there are so many mistakes that a close reading of the denials is pointless. Some of what is in these decisions is, in effect, in code anyway. How would a claimant know that the use of the word "severe" is, in effect, an insult since it means that Social Security has just determined that there is essentially nothing wrong with the claimant -- that there is nothing to anything the claimant has alleged?
The word severe does not mean that "there is essentially nothing wrong with the claimant." A lot of people have severe impairments such as diabetes, blindness, deafness, heart conditions, etc. that do not prevent them from working. Such comments ignore the legal definition of disability for social security purposes - an impairment that prevents you from doing substantial gainful work for a period of 12 months or is expected to end in death. Even some people with terminal cancer can still work.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the ALJs should write their own decisions, instead of having decision writers do it and then those might be correct.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess that would be clerical work beneath the high and mighty ALJs.
The decisions would be even worse if the ALJ wrote them. Trust me. The writers can only go by what they are given.
ReplyDelete